Vettriano brushes copy claims aside

ARTIST Jack Vettriano has brushed aside claims that he privately copied some of his most famous works.

The painter said he had never made any secret of using a 1987 illustrators’ guide for some drawings.

Some of Vettriano’s works show strong similarities to an artist’s teaching manual, The Illustrator’s Figure Reference Manual, published in 1987.

Vettriano’s most famous work, the Singing Butler, was last year sold at Sotheby’s for almost £750,000 (€1,1m).

Britain’s best selling artist said he had always been upfront about being self- taught and that, like many other artists, he used a reference book for some of his figure drawing.

The book, an aid to drawing human shapes, was unearthed by a graphic designer.

Sandy Robb, 49, from Edinburgh, came across the images when preparing to design wedding invitations for a friend in the style of Vettriano.

He said: “I looked up an illustrator’s reference manual which contains hundreds of photographs of models in various poses.

“In the ‘ballroom dancing waltz’ section I found what I was looking for.

“I thought one of the images looked familiar but couldn’t think why until I realised it was from Vettriano.”

Vettriano’s agent, Tom Hewlett, defended the artist.

The paintings by the former coal worker from Fife have attracted the likes of Jack Nicholson and Robbie Williams who have purchased his work.